What on earth is going on at UBS?
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Indictments of Raoul Weil and possibly others? It looked liked based on information in various trade magazines UBS was attracting a lot of big hitters with big packages. I wonder what they think and what the future of UBS in the US is?
They named the US head to take over. Weil is the head of the Swiss Private Bank - the one in trouble for helping US citizens evade US taxes - according to the news. This has been a Swiss vs us fiance law deal that has not been tied to the UBS America piece of the company and it even seems to support that in that they named the US chief to take Weil’s place while he defends himself.
Weil was head of Global Wealth management for the past year. But the indictment was from his duties of when he was head of Swiss International off-shore (Swiss advisors doing cross borders business) from several years ago.
This is old news but frustrating for UBS, as its a small piece of business (20 billion out of 3 trillion). The frustration is the catch 22 and the legacy of the "Swiss bank account."
As far back as 100 years ago the wealthiest around the globe opened swiss bank accounts for secrecy and protection due to Swiss banking laws. As UBS has become a major world player they have been moving out of the “Secret Swiss Bank Account” business. but they have a problem because Swiss law says it is Illegal to provide any foreign government client information. A legacy problem that UBS has been working with the US govt on.
Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but if Raoul was directing swiss advisors to go against company policy then he will face the music. I dont think this is the case as i have seen him speak a few times and don’t think that the small reward would have been worth the risk. The offshore US business is not that great when compared to offshore middle east or other developing countries biz.
As bancofamigo said this does not apply to UBS wealth management in the US, but certainly is not good to an already tarnished rep this year.
On another note Marten Hoekstra may be the best of all US wealth mangement heads out there so thats a big plus for UBS.
by the way the UBS deal will be changing in 2 weeks so if your thinking of signing the 260% (160 upfront) or 240 (140 upfront) better do so quickly. If you sign now its good until 1/19.